Pursuing My Way
by MinuanoGS
Summary: After the events that happened at the Grand Tower, Sebastian Debeste is in a difficult situation. He doesn't want to go the same path his father took, but he's unsure of what he should do. Luckily for him, Miles Edgeworth has faced the same hardships during his career and is willing to help Sebastian find his way as a prosecutor.
More than one month had passed since Miles Edgeworth exposed the truth of the cases that took place at the Grand Tower. Once they were solved, his mind was set on the new path he would follow : Save people as a prosecutor, and fight the contradictions that remained present in the legal system. He wasn't the only one that chose to follow a new path though.

Sebastian Debeste was that other person. After the events at the Grand Tower, he decided to stray away from his father's footsteps, but wasn't that sure of himself. Miles therefore decided to take Sebastian under his wing for some time, in order to guide him.

As usual, Miles was sitting on his desk's chair, taking a sip of tea while looking at the town. He'd been waiting for Sebastian to arrive for half an hour, while thinking about how he should help him. He wasn't used to having someone alongside him except for Gumshoe, and even he of all people was always on time. Needless to say, Miles was annoyed.

Suddenly, the keyhole of the office's door started to make noise. "Sebastian's finally here. I can understand that he can only come by foot, but he should have told me he would be late", Edgeworth thought to himself. The door opened, and two people entered the office: Sebastian and the security officer, Maggey Byrde.

"That boy said he lost his key, and that he worked with you," she told Miles.

"Yes, he does work with me, Ms. Byrde," he replied. He bowed to her, and continued: "I'm sorry that he made you walk all the way to the 12th floor, especially since the elevator doesn't work at the moment."

"Don't worry, Mr. Edgeworth! Opening doors to people who lost their keys is one of my duties here, after all!" Maggey cheerfully said.

Sebastian thanked her as she left the office to resume her work. He then apologized to Miles, who crossed his arms and pointed to him: "Next time, the least you could do is tell me that you'll be late. But that's not the point." Now that Sebastian was here, Miles could tell him why he wanted to see him as soon as possible.

"As you know, Sebastian, I told you to come here because we have a new case to solve."

"Yeah, so? What's that case about?" Sebastian was eager to work with Miles. After all, he was the man that made him think about the meaning of being a prosecutor.

Miles then started explaining the basics of the case. "A student has been assaulted at the Themis Legal Academy-" Sebastian jumped of surprise when he heard that name. Miles was quick to notice it, and asked him why such a reaction.

"Well... That's where I took the prosecutor course and passed the bar exam." He was surprised that a murder happened there of all places.

Miles resumed his summary of the case. A student in the defense attorney course has been found stabbed in a classroom, and one of his classmates has been arrested because they had "decisive evidence". Miles wasn't really sure of that because in many cases, the evidence that was so-called decisive was quite the opposite.

"That's an open and shut case, then?"

"Even if there's evidence, you can't say it will be an easy case. You'll need to eliminate all the impossibilites to reach the truth."

"Wait a minute... I'll need to eliminate them?" Sebastian was surprised. He was told that they'll take the case together, and Miles had just told him he would have to solve the mysteries that might appear. "But I thought we would work together!"

Miles understood his reaction, but explained to him what he had in mind:

"Sebastian, you're willing to carve your own path as a prosecutor, and I am willing to help you. Nevertheless, I just can't take your hand and guide you all the way. Do you understand? You'll need experience, and I think you're able to solve this case, especially after what you've done at your last trial."

A single tear ran on Sebastian's cheek. He didn't forget what happened a month ago, and he sure wasn't going to forget it easily. He wiped it away, then quietly said:

"So, what are we waiting for? Let's go solve that case!" His enthusiasm was still there.

Miles and Sebastian looked at each other, then nodded and left Miles' office. They went to the stairs. During their way out of the building, Sebastian wondered:

"How are we going to go to the Academy? Don't tell me we're going by foot!" He had to walk all the way to the Prosecutor's office and that exhausted him, so he clearly didn't want to walk more.

Edgeworth noticed this and reassured him:

"Not at all. I do have a car, so why wouldn't we use it ? That's why we're heading to the underground parking lot."

After several minutes of going down the stairs, they arrived to the parking lot. There was so many cars parked there that Sebastian couldn't help but ask:

"So, which one's your car ?"

Edgeworth pointed at a red Alfa Romeo GTV and proudly said: "This one."

"That's... That's really your car? It looks so cool!" Sebastian was impressed. He wasn't used to see sports cars, after all, his father was all about motorcycles. Miles opened the car's doors and he and Sebastian respectively took the driver's and passenger's seats.

Not only the car was good-looking from outside, but the inside was just as pleasant to see. Needless to say, Sebastian was amazed. He glanced over all the inside of the car then noticed something sitting on the rear-view mirror. It was a small doll representing the Steel Samurai. He asked Miles about it:

"You like the Steel Samurai, Mr. Edgeworth?"

Edgeworth was kind of embarassed by that question, even if he wasn't showing it: "A friend of mine put it there once and I forgot to take it off.".

"What about that Steel Samurai figurine I saw at your office? It's also your friend?"

"...Yes." He hoped that Sebastian would believe that.

Without further words, Miles started the car and began to drive.

While he was driving, he asked Sebastian about what they should do first. He wanted to know how Sebastian would answer, and he gave him the wrong one: Going to the crime scene. Miles explained to him that first of all, they should speak to the defendant. That way, they will hear his version of the facts and they'll be able to compare it to testimonies later.

A few minutes later, they arrived to the detention center. Miles asked the guard if he could bring the defendant here, the latter answered him that it was definitely possible since the questioning had finished minutes ago. It seemed that luck was on their side.

While the guard was away, Miles turned his head towards Sebastian:

"From now, I'm going to let you direct the investigation.". After seeing him becoming a little worried, he quickly added: "Don't worry. If you forget something, I'll help you out, or give you a clue."

Sebastian felt a little bit better after hearing that, but he was still a bit nervous.

The door on the other side of the glass opened and the guard came in, a young man in a blue uniform by his side. His looks weren't surprising compared to some people Miles and Sebastian met in the past: He had short brown hair, dark green eyes and stubble. He looked like a perfectly normal person at first glance.

Said man was clearly not at ease, and who wouldn't be in a detention center? He sat on his chair and didn't say a word, until he noticed Sebastian's uniform.

"You... You're a student at the academy?" His voice was quiet, but you could feel it going to shake at any moment.

"I was one, yeah. I graduated some months ago and now I work as a prosecutor." Sebastian pointed at Miles and continued: "I'm also Mr. Edgeworth's assistant."

"Mr. Edgeworth? You mean THE Miles Edgeworth?" The boy's eyes were shining when he heard that, then noticed that Miles was there. He adressed to him "I've heard so many things about you during my course, it's like a dream to see you!"

Miles was a little bit surprised. Not because the boy seemed to idolize him, but because of the fact people talked about him at the academy:

"Oh? You talked about me? That's... Unexpected."

The young man started to feel a little bit better, and introduced himself: "My name is Ethan Black. You probably guessed it because of my uniform, I'm a student at the Themis Legal Academy. To be more precise, it's my third year at the defense attorney course."

"At the defense attorney course? That's weird. The blue uniforms are supposed to be for students in the prosecutor course, last time I was there," Sebastian said while playing around with his baton.

"I've been thinking about this when you told me you were a prosecutor. All the students in the prosecutor course I've seen wore red uniforms," Ethan thoughtfully said while looking away. "I guess they changed the colors for some reason."

After a little bit of chatting about who Ethan was, Sebastian started to shift the subject to the case. Ethan wasn't feeling alright about it, but he knew he should do his best to answer everything the duo of prosecutors would ask him.

"Ethan, we'd like to hear about your testimony. You know how important it is, right?"

Ethan nodded. He knew that very well: Several of his teachers told him that in order to be a good lawyer, one should give big importance to the testimonies of all the people related in any way to the case.

"Let's see... It was Yesterday, at around 4 P.M.. I just left the last class I had that day then I went to the locker room. When I opened mine, I noticed someone wrote a note and put it inside. I don't remember the exact content, but the basic idea is that Anna wanted to see me after my class to talk to me about something."

Miles asked about that: "How did you know that it was that Anna who wrote that note? And who is she exactly?"

"Oh, well... She's a good friend of mine since I'm at the academy. She's always helped me out whenever I needed help. And she told me by phone yesterday about the thing she wanted to told me, so I thought she put the note to remind me about it. After all, she knew that I'm the kind of guy that forget a lot of things."

After clearing up this, Ethan resumed his story:

"...So, I waited for her in front of the classroom because I finished one hour before her. But no one came out of the room. I checked the time and it was 5:13 P.M.. I thought that if there was people there, they would probably have left by that time, so I entered the room." Tears were forming in his eyes: "And it was at this moment that I saw her... with a knife in her chest. I did a stupid thing that's going to be used against me by the way..."

Sebastian asked him about it, while trying to help him feel better: "I don't think, man. You seem pretty smart, so what did you do?"

"I... I took out the knife and did something to stop the blood from spilling all over the place. I know that's stupid, because it now has my fingerprints on it, but still! I couldn't bear to see my friend like that!", Ethan knew that fingerprints can and are everytime used as evidence during trials, and the thought of leaving his own on the weapon made him feel really bad.

He continued, while small tears were running down his cheeks: "And finally, while I was reaching for my phone to call for help, the police arrived and arrested me for her attempted murder..."

Sebastian thought a little bit for a moment. He didn't know exactly what to do, but seeing Ethan feeling like that made him think that reassuring him would be a good idea.

"Honestly, you don't seem like a bad guy at heart. I mean, you obviously seem to care about her and I don't think that you could be able to do that to someone that you care for." He said those words but he wasn't fully convinced himself. He fully knew that it could be an act and that Ethan didn't care about her at all, after all, he had to face a similar situation like that in the past with how his father treated him.

Still, it seemed to have succeeded: A faint smile was on Ethan's face now. He took a tissue from his pocked and wiped his tears, looked at his wristwatch then told to Sebastian and Miles with a straight face:

"It's time for me to go back in my cell. Before that, thanks in advance. I know your way of working on cases, Mr. Edgeworth, and I'm sure you'll get to the bottom of this case and find whoever did this."

After these words, he left the visitor's room. Sebastian and Miles left a little bit after, and something was clear in their mind: The defendant counted on them to discover the truth, and they were definitely going to find it during their investigation at the academy.


End file.
